The psychiatric patient as a person

The dehumanization which is so much a part of a technological society is keenly felt by psychiatric patients. Pastors must treat them with care if they are to recover their personhood. The author suggests certain pastoral approaches intended to reflect the values of the inherent worth of persons and their moral responsibility and right to self-fulfillment. Included in the approach is the need to gather the facts, establish rapport, empathize, listen with love, interpret, and have a plan of action.Professor Barnette is Professor of Christian Ethics Emeritus at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He presently serves as Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky 40201.     

Treating fetuses: The patient as person

The medical treatment in utero of human beings raises several ethical questions. I argue that treatment is sufficient to establish the fetus as person; and consider how conflicts between the interests of the fetus and mother are to be resolved when such treatment is proposed. My arguments rest upon a 'relational model' of ethical discourse derived from H. Richard Niebuhr's "ethics of the fitting." I conclude that the limitation of personal autonomy is rarely justified, but may be when direct, grave, harm to others is imminent; and that educative rather than punitive measures are the best prospect for protecting fetal life.     

The person as co-investigator in self-research: Valuation theory

Recent developments in self-research show the self to be increasingly conceived as an organized and highly dynamic phenomenon. In combination with the arguments presented in the preceding article, these developments are a good reason for adopting a method in which the psychologist and the subject work together in the study of the self: The self-confrontation method and the theory on which it is based—valuation theory—are presented as an example of such an approach. This method construes the self as an organized process of valuations, a valuation being any unit of meaning that the person finds of importance in thinking about his or her life. Formulated in the language of the person him- or herself; these valuations and how they develop over time are considered in a dialogue between the psychologist and the subject. For the purposes of demonstration, two phenomena that are not easily observedare discussed here: (a) the existence of an imaginal figure not visibly present but functioning as a signifcant other in the person's daily life, and (b) the presence of a character in a recurring dream, which later gets included as an integral part of the self: Finally, the present approach is briefly discussed as representing a constructivist view of personality psychology.     

The minister as pastor and person

The image of the clown as developed by Faber to illustrate the role of the hospital chaplain as a deepening and unifying force in that setting is utilized to elucidate the role and needs of ministers as they function as significant professionals in the community. As such, they are both pastors and persons. As pastors, they are also symbols to others representing a reality larger than merely their own personhood. Nevertheless, for the most effective work, the development of the person as person is a prerequisite. Their increasing competence can be secured only through the supervision of their pastoral work by another highly trained, skilled and sensitive practitioner.     

Cognitive tempo as a Rorschach color variable.

The study investigated the relation of cognitive impulsivity (Kagan, 1966) to color responding on the Rorschach. Chromatic Rorschach Plates II, III, VII, IX and X were administered to 30 male and 43 female subjects. Subjects were then categorized as Impulsive or Reflective according to performance on the Matching Familiar Figures Test.Impulsive subjects made more C and CF responses than Reflective subjects. They also responded more quickly than Reflectives though that difference did not reach significance. The data supported the hypothesis relating impulsivity to color responding. Implications for theories of emotionality and color shock were discussed.     

Rorschach Scores as a Function of Examiner Difference

This study examines the ability of five self-report assessment measures to predict college students' drug use across 12 pharmacological drug categories. Subjects were 125 female and 61 male university undergraduate students. The test battery included the following instruments: (a) the Psychopathic Deviancy (Pd) scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI); (b) the MacAndrew Alcoholism scale (MAC), a special scale of the MMPI; (c) the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS); (d) the Millon Alcohol Abuse Scale; and (e) the Millon Drug Abuse Scale. Scores from these instruments were utilized in linear combinations to predict individual drug use outcomes as well as polydrug versus single drug use patterns. The drug categories included in this investigation are coffee, tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, tranquilizers, depressants, amphetamines, LSD, other hallucinogens, solvents, narcotics, and cocaine. Results demonstrate significant and meaningful relationships between predictors and drug use levels among college students. Weighted equations derived from linear discriminant function analyses were generally capable of accurately classifying subject's drug use levels across drug categories and in discriminating single drug use from polydrug use patterns. Typically, the Sensation Seeking Scale entered as the most powerful predictor of substance use and abuse.     

The person response function as a tool in person-fit research

Item responses that do not fit an item response theory (IRT) model may cause the latent trait value to be inaccurately estimated. In the past two decades several statistics have been proposed that can be used to identify nonfitting item score patterns. These statistics all yieldscalar values. Here, the use of the person response function (PRF) for identifying nonfitting item score patterns was investigated. The PRF is afunction and can be used for diagnostic purposes. First, the PRF is defined in a class of IRT models that imply an invariant item ordering. Second, a person-fit method proposed by Trabin & Weiss (1983) is reformulated in a nonparametric IRT context assuming invariant item ordering, and statistical theory proposed by Rosenbaum (1987a) is adapted to test locally whether a PRF is nonincreasing. Third, a simulation study was conducted to compare the use of the PRF with the person-fit statistic ZU3. It is concluded that the PRF can be used as a diagnostic tool in person-fit research.The authors are grateful to Coen A. Bernaards for preparing the figures used in this article, and to Wilco H.M. Emons for checking the calculations.